13 – Hе’s indееd рlауing it wild
“Whаt nonsensе аrе уоu talking about? I hаd mу assistant buу this and bring it ovеr lаst minutе.”
Liаng Yilоu rеaсhеd оut tо snatch thе packaging bох, but Shi Miаоmiао stоod uр аnd wаlked awау.
Without а word, she heаded сoldly downstаirs.
It should hаve bееn her marrуing Lu Jin.
They wеrе thе truе childhoоd swееthеarts, innoсent рlaymаtes sincе youth.
Тhe elders оf thе Lu fаmily hаd jоkingly callеd her “уоung mistress” sincе she was littlе.
Evеrуthing сhangеd after Lu Jin mоved awау аt the age of seven.
That dау, following the suggestiоn оf her third aunt, Lu Minglаn, shе prepared a cup of coffee “with something extra” for Lu Jin.
Then she waited for him in the hotel suite he often stayed at.
Too nervous, she drank a little alcohol.
When she woke up, the person beside her turned out to be Liang Yilou.
The two tacitly agreed to keep this absurd incident a secret.
What couldn’t be hidden was the child in her belly.
“The doctor said my chances of getting pregnant are extremely low. If I don’t keep this one, it’ll be very difficult to conceive in the future.”
Holding the pregnancy test report, Shi Miaomiao informed Liang Yilou that she would keep the child.
Liang Yilou originally wanted to handle the matter discreetly, and the two would raise the child together.
But with his high-profile status as a film emperor, before he could even react, gossip accounts had already posted videos of Shi Miaomiao and Liang Yilou walking out of a room together early in the morning.
Setting aside Liang Yilou’s top-tier popularity for a moment,
Shi Miaomiao was also a million-follower internet celebrity blogger. Previously, she had built a wealthy, beautiful persona online, unboxing luxury goods and gaining a large following.
The scandal broke, the video surfaced.
Naturally, all three families found out.
And of course, the child was discovered too.
She forced Liang Yilou to go public. To save face for the three families, they hired a professional PR team to craft a love story about overcoming prominent families prejudices and obstacles.
Everyone emerged unscathed.
The only one who bore the responsibility and endured the insults was Chen Qingzhi.
Shi Miaomiao’s slender high heels pressed into the snow-white wool carpet as she passed by the slightly ajar door of Lu Jin’s room on the second floor.
Just in time to see Chen Qingzhi blushing, sitting obediently on the sofa.
Beside her, Lu Jin gazed at her with smiling eyes, utterly captivated.
Exactly like the photo that had just gone viral in the trending topic on Weibo.
If not for Chen Qingzhi, the person who should have been in this room was her.
If Chen Qingzhi’s career had suffered setbacks, if she were being chased and criticized by trolls, Shi Miaomiao might have felt a little better.
But instead, Chen Qingzhi managed to make Lu Jin propose marriage.
Making the aloof, untouchable flower she had placed on a pedestal willingly endure the Lu family’s strict rules and openly announce this mismatched marriage to the world.
Why?
How could Chen Qingzhi, after dumping Lu Jin for five years, still make this proud young master willingly turn back to her?
How could she make Liang Yilou, who was merely a contractual lover, never forget her from start to finish?
Every childhood playmate she ever had was taken away by Chen Qingzhi.
Shi Miaomiao’s heart swelled with jealousy and resentment.
That was the boy she had secretly liked for over twenty years.
Her hand, veins bulging, trembled as she knocked on the bedroom door—
“What is it?”
Before Shi Miaomiao could speak, Lu Jin’s icy gaze swept over her.
As if pierced by a thousand arrows.
Shi Miaomiao forced herself to stay calm and waved the item in her hand:
“The thing you wanted. Liang Yilou is with Chengcheng, so he asked me to bring it down.”
!
Her former rival coming to deliver this thing to her!
Chen Qingzhi was so embarrassed she could dig out an entire Potala Palace with her toes.She glared at Lu Jin, then quickly turned her head to look out the window as if she hadn’t heard him.
Lu Jin raised an eyebrow, stepped forward to take the plastic box, and lazily said:
“Thanks.”
Then he casually moved to close the door again.
Shi Miaomiao bit her lip tightly, her face pale.
As if mustering immense courage, she finally allowed herself to raise a hand and brace it against the door handle.
“Lu Jin, you know perfectly well how I ended up pregnant with that child.”
A gust of wind brushed her face as Lu Jin suddenly swung the door open.
He simply stood there, looking down at her.
His eyes seemed to hold a massive vortex, churning with towering waves.
They carried a dark, menacing air, along with a warning.
The backlit shadow amplified the coldness on his face.
Like the biting winds of deep winter, gust after gust, they sent shivers rippling through her heart.
“Miss Shi, please have some self-respect.”
Lu Jin’s tone grew low.
It was still so pleasing to the ear that it made Shi Miaomiao want to cry.
Only after the door was locked again did Shi Miaomiao snap back to reality.
She stood dazed in the doorway for a few seconds before leaving dejectedly.
Chen Qingzhi watched as Lu Jin casually slipped the plastic box into his coat pocket, then abruptly spoke up:
“I’m meeting friends tonight. Where are you heading back to?”
???
Can you perform Sichuan opera face-changing or something?
He was all smiles just a moment ago, but as soon as his ex-girlfriend mentioned something about a child, his face turned this gloomy?
“I’m going back to Linjiang Road.”
Originally, Chen Qingzhi wanted to say “home,” but considering Lu Jin owned too many properties and worried he might not know which one she meant, she specified the marital home on Linjiang Road.
It was a gift from her parents after they got married.
“Mm, I’ll have the driver take you in a bit.”
It was no surprise that Lu Jin, who rarely came back, would arrange to go out and indulge with friends. At his age, full of youthful vigor, it would be odd if he didn’t have some way to unwind.
Chen Qingzhi thought of the item he had just casually tucked into his coat pocket—so he had come prepared after all.
He really knew how to play the field.
Throughout the drive from the Lu residence, aside from the driver exchanging a few greetings,
the two of them fell back into their distant, indifferent atmosphere.
Lu Jin had drunk a little at noon, stretching his legs and sitting sprawled out.
The back seat was spacious, yet he deliberately nudged Chen Qingzhi’s knee with his own.
He shifted an inch, and Chen Qingzhi yielded an inch.
Finally, when Chen Qingzhi was pressed right against the car door, Lu Jin asked idly:
“What exactly did I do to you?”
Could it be that she was this upset just because his ex-boyfriend’s wife personally delivered a box of condoms?
Lu Jin scoffed.
Seemed like lingering feelings were still at play.
Of course, Chen Qingzhi wouldn’t say she was bothered by the thing in his coat pocket.
Although they hadn’t signed an agreement, they had a verbal understanding to cooperate mutually.
Their private lives were not to interfere with each other.
But Chen Qingzhi always felt somewhat uneasy about marital infidelity.
Too embarrassed to voice the real reason, she frowned and asked another question that had been on her mind:
“Is Chengcheng actually your child?”
The driver slammed on the brakes, wishing he could vanish into the ground on the spot.
Lu Jin clicked his tongue in disapproval, clearly annoyed with the driver.
Then, turning his head to see Chen Qingzhi’s earnest expression, he was directly amused to the point of anger:
“What do you mean?”
Chen Qingzhi slightly pursed her lips and muttered softly:
“Didn’t she just say you know perfectly well how the child was conceived…”
“If you had even a shred of sense, you’d realize that if that child were really mine, the Shi family would have pulled out all the stops to marry Shi Miaomiao into the Lu family. Why would they ever settle for letting her marry that good-for-nothing Liang Yilou?”Lu Jin’s gaze at Chen Qingzhi at that moment was like looking at a terminally ill idiot.
“Indeed,” Chen Qingzhi nodded, then turned to look out the window again:
“Aside from his face, Liang Yilou is lacking in every other way.”
“Lacking?”
Lu Jin keenly caught those two words, lowering his tone, his voice trembling slightly:
“You’ve tried?”